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Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One

RUSH: I check the e-mail at the top-of-the-hour break. "Rush, you said that Brent Bozell told you that you should plug this book but you didn't give the title." Did I not give the title? (interruption) I didn't give the title? It's called Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One. It's by Zev Chafets. Zev is the writer who did that cover piece on me, the New York Times Magazine, what was it, two years ago? Yeah, just about that. I spent 16 hours with him, interviewing. It's not a biography. It's certainly not an authorized biography. It's got some biographical stuff in it but it's not primarily a biography. I've had a lot of e-mail exchanges. To this day I have not read the whole thing. I've thumbed through it -- you know, check a page here, check a page there. (interruption) Well... Snerdley says, "Why not?" I don't read anything about myself. I haven't read the New York Times piece all the way through.

I just don't. If they get it right I already know it, and if they get it wrong it's par for the course. So, you know, why bother? It is what it is. But I have talked to a number of people. Snerdley thought it was okay. H.R.'s got a couple nitpicks with it. I don't recall ever saying that George Bush was "a preppie snob," George Bush 41. I don't recall ever saying that, and Zev still doesn't understand my attitude about racial problems in the country but those are minor things. He tried. He tried to get it. (interruption) Well, here's the way that came about. He asked me a question. I think he said he asked you about July 4th, Independence Day, and he said that July 4th's no big deal to you. Independence Day is no big deal to you. Mr. Snerdley is African-American, and he asked me what I thought. I said, "I think it's time to let all that stuff go." This is the one country in the world that ended slavery; 500,000 Americans lost their lives.

It's 2010. This country has the most opportunity for anybody who wants to seek it of any country in the history of the world. No country's perfect. No human being is perfect. We still have bigots and racists, and we got people that discriminate against people for all kinds of things in this country. Zev kept saying, "But do you not understand how an African-American might not be able to look at the founding of this country as something glorious?" I said, "I can understand that, but this is not the days of the founding and the people who wrote the Constitution allowed for an amendment process to fix it." I said, "Look, you go back and you look at John Adams in the days of the discussions and the Federalist Papers. They knew they had a problem with slavery in the South, but in order to gain independence and to have a unity of purpose in seeking independence from the British, they had get the southern states.

"They had to have the southern states join them. John Adams quoted numerous times, 'We're going to have a problem with this.'" All the founders were not slave owners, they were not racists. I think the continual focus on whatever original sin this country has is serving only to hold people back and not move forward in the present day, and I think that's by design in a lot of cases and I really resent it. It makes me sad to see so many people born in this country told every day that you don't have a chance here simply because of the color of their skin, which is not true anymore. It's time to get with the present times. But even saying this, I know I'm tweaking a lot of people. "You just don't get it, Rush." You know what my problem is? I told him this. I am the most colorblind person in the country.

I am not at all oriented toward political correctness, and I assume everybody else is colorblind because everybody else says that's what they want, is a colorblind society. So I believe people. I'm a literalist. Somebody tells me they want and wish we had a colorblind society, fine! Well, let's act like we are. Let's be that. So I am that. But still there are people who just want to take... You know, race is a provocative issue, it is controversial, and as such, it's something that you can build something interesting about. Those are two little nitpicks. He doesn't get it all wrong on race and the Bush 41 stuff is minor. But everybody that's read it says it's pretty good, and Brent Bozell said, "You really ought to really hype it because the guy has shown that you can do a quality piece. He was nice to you. He was respectful of you," which is all true.

So the name of the book -- and I'm sorry, I thought I gave it in the first hour but they're telling me that I didn't -- is Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One. I think one of the arguments against me also is I'm not an original thinker. Anybody that has listened to this program for 20, 21 years, knows that that's stupid. It's just nuts. It is laughable. Chafets, I think, captures that notion in the book, too. So maybe I should sit down and read it cover to cover. Just read a page here, flip to another chapter, read a page there, just try to get a flavor for it.(interruption) What? What are you saying? Snerdley says he thinks it would be good for me to read it. Well, it's like H.R. says, though: If it's true, I already know it. If it's not true, par for the course. (laughing)

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Don't forget, my friends, on this race business it was I, El Rushbo, who warned all of you who called here prior to the election, "But, Rush, don't you think the election of Obama will be good because it will end all this racist talk? The country will improve because it's no longer racist 'cause it elected a black president." I, El Rushbo, was the one to say, "No, it's only going to get worse. The race hustlers, the race industry is excited about this possibility," I said, "because any criticism of Obama will be said to be racist." And, lo and behold, right again was I, El Rushbo. Are race relations not more strained than ever now? Everything's about race. Everything is about skin color to these people, or however they classify people, however they seek to group them, whatever, they're victims. Everybody's a hapless victim of some magical, mysterious, powerful majority that wreaks damage and hell, havoc on all these poor, unsuspecting people.